The concept for the project was inspired by the extreme care and individualization that vineyards use when dealing with a seemingly monoculture fields of grape vines.
Before 8 a.m., two tribal leaders met us on the side of the main highway that connects the capital with the country's north, and we followed their white pickup through winding roads that cut through vast green fields of grape vines.
I team-teach a course in Grapevine Biology, focusing my lectures on the field of grape breeding, genetics, and germplasm conservation.
"If I subdivided the land, no one in my family would have to work anymore," said Joseph T. Macari as he sat on the deck of his winery, which overlooks fields of ripening grapes.
This year he began field trials of grapes engineered to resist Pierce's disease and fungal infection.Many people, though, hope that the problems of disease in grapevines may be solved without the sort of genetic modification that risks provoking consumer boycotts.
True, tawny and vintage ports start out from the same place the craggy, lunar, sunstruck Douro River valley and both are composed of the same field-blend medley of grapes, folkloric fruits with names like Touriga Nacional and Tinta Roriz.
Beyond the almond orchards were fields of pomegranates, pistachios, grapes and apricots.
Certainly not the other passengers in the lounge car nibbling on biltong (dried meat) and crisps as Cape Town's suburbs melted away to be replaced by fields of fat, green grapes.
